The Legion
by BlackWolfRises
Summary: Trouble is brewing in the West of Ninjago, with whole cities being wiped out in just minutes. So, naturally, the ninja go to investigate the problems, only to find a group of four other ninja called The Legion. As the two teams compete for seniority, will love blossom, or will there be a continuing rivalry between them? LloydXOC, KaiXOC, ZaneXOC, ColeXOC !NOT YAOI!
1. Chapter 1

A.N: Hey guys! So, as you know, I started this fic for fun, and I requested some OCs. I'm really sorry if I couldn't use yours…Well here are the ones I'm using:

**Jayde McKenzie, White ninja of light**

**Ayesha Nightshade, Black ninja of shadow**

**Matt Franklin, Blue ninja of water**

**Max, Red ninja of psychic**

**Morgan Lucan, Dragon keeper**

**Trinity Animi, Morgan's surrogate sister**

Now that that's over, on with the story!

**_Kai_**

Up to that day, I had always thought that Lloyd, Zane, Cole, Jay and I were the only ninja in Ninjago. Turns out I was wrong.

The ninja and I were riding our vehicles through a thick forest, heading towards a village that had sent a distress signal to us about a minute ago, and it honestly didn't sound too good. Apparently, some kind of creature had rampaged into the small town, set fire to everything and destroyed buildings, crops and people in the process.

As soon as we cleared the forest, we were greeted with the sight of a small settlement that was doused in water. People and animals had been pulled out of the rubble, and the collapsed buildings had been moved out of the way. "Damn it!" I shouted in frustration, "Why do they always get here before us?" I asked rhetorically. Jay shrugged, while the rest of the group remained unresponsive.

During the past week, we had been called to several different villages and towns, all of which were being attacked by this 'fire-breathing creature'. The only problem was, when we got to the site, everything had already been cleared up and everyone was safe again. And then the villagers would complain that we were trying to copy the look of the ninja that saved them.

I mean, if anything, the other ninja were copying us! We were THE ninja! The originals! I sighed in anger, and continued to speak, "Guys, I'm getting sick of this. We need to find out who keeps ripping off our look!" The others all nodded in agreement, as we drove into the village, receiving the usual comments about our 'impersonation'.

Cole, being the leader, walked up to a large group of villagers, and asked them "Who were the people that saved you?" The group went silent, as they turned around to face us. "You should know!" One man began to laugh, "You're the ones dressing up as them!" The rest of the people joined in chuckling at us. I was starting to get mad. "We're not dressing up as them!" Jay complained. Zane nodded in agreement, as Lloyd added, "We've been ninja for a year! There's no way we could be copying them!" This comment only fuelled the villager's laughter further.

"A year? The Legion have been in business for three years!" A woman chortled. Three years? But then these people couldn't have been replicating us… I was snapped out of my thoughts as a voice cut through the air like a knife. "What's going on here? And why are there four people dressed like us?" We turned to face the voices, greeted by the sight of four ninja balanced on the top of a roof; black, white, red and blue.

"We're not dressed like you!" I snapped. After saying that, Black jumped down from his perch on the roof, and strolled over to us. "Yes you are," he began, "You're wearing the same colours and the same uniforms. Only thing is, you've got an extra ninja, and you got the weapons wrong!" He observed pulling two golden daggers from hidden sheaths, and comparing them with Cole's scythe. "Yeah, none of us have scythes. They're too big and obvious for a ninja to carry around." Black continued.

"And a sword? Seriously?" Red flaunted, drawing an axe that had been strapped to his back. "These are way better." He brandished it around a bit, before returning it to his back. I looked over to where Jay was, and sure enough, he was being pestered by Blue. "Nunchucks? Who uses nunchucks?" Blue grinned under his mask, pulling two katanas from behind his back, and twirling them around in his hands before replacing them.

I glanced at Zane, who was the only one not being harassed by these Legion people. White was still sitting on the roof, watching his teammates. Suddenly, he stood up, and called out "Hey guys! Stop pestering them! They might actually be ninja, you know!" White's voice was feminine, though, unlike the others. This team actually had a girl with them? She was probably the weakest. When the rest of The Legion ignored her, White huffed, jumped off the roof and unslung a golden bow from her back, shooting an arrow straight through the group, effectively silencing everyone.

Black turned towards White, and asked her "Jayde, you honestly think that these people are ninja? We're the only ninja around here!" he reasoned. Lloyd stepped forward, and pointed, "That's what we thought, until you guys showed up!" Black stopped at this, and turned towards us. "Who are you guys anyway?" Black asked. I paused at this. We didn't really have a name like, The Legion or anything. We were just 'The Ninja'. I decided to stick with that. "We're The Ninja!" I exclaimed proudly, as the rest of the group turned towards me, eyebrows raised. "Really? That's the best you could come up with?" Jay asked.

"Geez, sorry!" I apologized sarcastically.

Red decided to interject, "Guys, can we at least TRY to do something productive?" he asked. Black cornered him, "Sheesh, that's rich, coming from you!" he voiced. Red shrugged, and backed away from Black. "But anyway, he's right!" Black barked, "We do need to do something other than argue. Listen, do you four know the monster that's been terrorizing Ninjago?" We all shook our heads, mumbling that we didn't. White sighed, and stepped forward. "We've been having trouble-"

"We have not!" She was interrupted harshly by Black, only to continue.

"As I was saying, we've been having trouble actually finding the monster itself. Since you four have showed up, and are apparently ninja, could I ask you on behalf of the team if you would help us?" she finished.

I glanced at the rest of our team, who seemed to be agreeing with White. The Legion, however, were a different matter altogether. Blue and Red were both throwing mini tantrums, insisting that they didn't want any other people helping them, while Black was insisting that they didn't need our help. "We've been ninja for three years! We don't need your help! We can catch the monster if and when we want to!" he yelled. White just walked over confidently, and whispered something to Black, who seemed to perk up at the comment.

"Okay fine," Black began, "we'll help you!" I looked over at Lloyd in confusion. "I thought we were helping them?" Lloyd whispered. I just shrugged in response, and kept listening to Black. "But you have to show us who you really are; otherwise we can't trust you." He finished. Easy enough. Without a second thought I flipped my hood off. "Name's Kai, red ninja of fire." I introduced myself. Cole was next, "I'm Cole, black ninja of earth." He offered. Zane and Jay tossed their hoods off next. "My name is Zane, the white ninja of ice."

"And I'm Jay, the blue ninja of lightning." He finished. Lloyd was the last of us to remove his hood. "I'm Lloyd, the green ninja. I control all the elements." He explained.

Black nodded, seemingly satisfied with our introductions. The first to reveal themselves in The Legion was Blue. "I'm Matt, blue ninja of water." Began the black haired boy, his ice blue eyes shining with excitement. Red was next. "My name's Max, and I'm the red ninja of psychic." He introduced, brushing his light brown hair from his hazel eyes. White stepped forward, and took off her hood next. "I'm Jayde, the white ninja of light." She informed us, as she shook her brown silver streaked hair out of her hood, and glanced over us briefly with her brown eyes.

I turned to Black and asked him, "You actually let a girl be on your team?" he raised an eyebrow, and replied, "Two girls." Black then pulled back her hood to send wavy black hair tumbling out. "Ayesha, black ninja of shadow." She introduced herself, her obsidian black eyes examining us each in turn. I couldn't believe it. The Legion had not just one, but two girls! Girls can't fight! They're always the ones getting rescued! But I decided not to mention that; after my previous comment, both Ayesha and Jayde looked as if they wanted to murder me.

Cole decided to break the silence, "Well, I always did wonder why we didn't have a water ninja…" he trailed off with a long pause, before continuing, "You guys should probably come with us to the Destiny's Bounty. Sensei and Nya will want to meet you."

"Sensei and Nya?" Ayesha asked.

"Yeah, Nya's Kai's sister, and Sensei is… Well…Sensei!" Jay explained. Ayesha just tossed a skeptical look at him, and began walking in the direction that we had come from.

I sighed to myself, before asking Jayde, "Is she always like this?" the ninja of light looked over at me, and replied, "Not all the time… You guys need to get to know her before she'll be nice to you." Well, that was comforting. I had a feeling this was going to be a long walk.

A.N: Glad I got that done! Sorry it took me so long to update; I was on holiday! For those of you waiting for the next chapter of TPo9 (The Prophecy of Nine), I promise it'll come out soon! Remember to review!


	2. Chapter 2

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Hope you like it, and don't forget to review! **Shoutout to my friend Jayde!**

**_Lloyd_**

Did Ayesha honestly think we could walk back to the Bounty? I mean, it had taken us about 10 minutes to get here, and I was riding a four headed dragon, while the others were driving at near impossible speeds in their vehicles! And even if we did walk back, how would she be able to find her way there? But, the Shadow ninja stubbornly trudged ahead of everyone, glancing at the ground every few seconds.

Then she stopped walking, turned around with a huff, and asked, "How far away is the Destiny's Bounty?"

"Umm, about 12km away!" Jay piped up from the back. Ayesha huffed again. "Well, you could have told me that before!" She grumbled, obviously embarrassed. She then lifted her index finger and thumb to her mouth, and whistled loudly.

Suddenly, an earsplitting roar was heard from the skies, as a large black dragon swooped down and landed next to the shadow ninja. "Hey Midnight," Ayesha greeted the large reptilian, before swinging a leg over its flank, and seating herself on the dragon's back. Ayesha's dragon was quite different from the ultra-dragon, though. It was quite lean, obviously built for speed as well as strength, and had wickedly sharp spikes protruding from the back of its ankles. Jagged spikes lined the dragon's spine and tail, ending in a sharp, curved blade on the tip of its tail. Its horns began on the sides of the reptile's head, and curved down to end just below its mouth. In other words, it was a scary dragon.

Following her lead, the other three members of The Legion whistled for their dragons, and sure enough, the remaining three dragons dove down from the sky. The first dragon, which I assumed was Jayde's, was quite small, pure white in coloring, with golden splotches around its scales. It had short gold coloured fur on the back of its ankles, and lining its spine. Its two golden horns began at the top of its head, and curved slightly upwards. It landed right next to Jayde, and nuzzled her hand fondly. Jayde laughed, and petted the dragon on the head. "Hi Starlight! I missed you too!" She then nimbly hopped onto the dragon's back, and turned her gaze to Max.

Max's dragon was huge; with red scales and amber splotches. With its large, bulky build, it was obviously built for strength. The red dragon had multiple sets of horns and spikes around its head and body, with a heavily plated underside. But despite its formidable look, the dragon's amber eyes were lively, as its spiked tail swished around playfully. "Hey Spike! What's up?" Max asked his companion. Spike made a low rumbling noise in response, as he nudged Max, who laughed, and swung his leg over the dragon's back, ready to ride.

The last dragon to land was Matt's. It was medium sized; not quite as large as Ayesha's or Max's, but slightly bigger than Jayde's. It was a light blue colour, with intricate dark blue swirling patterns marring its body and head. Rather than horns or spikes, this dragon had webbed fins on its neck, spine and tail. It also had small fins on its elbows and ankles. This dragon was obviously born for the ninja of water. Its pale blue eyes darted around, looking for its owner, and when they finally settled on Matt, the dragon pounced on him, knocking the water ninja to the ground, and began licking him with its bright blue tongue. "Eew! Gross, Hydro, get off me!" Matt laughed, trying to wrestle Hydro off him.

When he finally managed to do so, he mounted the excitable dragon, as Jayde, Ayesha and Max had. "Well," Ayesha began, "Are we just going to sit here all day, or are you five going to call your dragons?" she asked impatiently. Kai smirked, before stepping forward. "We don't need dragons! We have something better!" he boasted. Ayesha and Jayde exchanged a skeptical look, as Matt challenged, "Oh yeah? What is it then?" My four teammates then pulled out their golden weapons, and transformed them into their respective vehicles.

"What do you say to that?" Kai asked the Legion triumphantly. Ayesha's dragon, Midnight stepped forward, as Ayesha raised an eyebrow and began to speak. "Well, I for one think that they're pretty lame. Dragons are better than industrial tin cans any day!" she opposed. I decided to intervene, "Well my dragon is WAY better than any of yours!" I announced, as I snapped my fingers, calling the ultra-dragon to my side. Jayde, Max and Matt all remained speechless as the massive four-headed dragon landed in front of them. Ayesha, on the other hand, boldly marched up to it on Midnight, and stared straight at its four heads.

"Yeah," she admitted, "It is pretty cool. But four heads? Don't you think that's a bit overkill?" she grinned at us, and without another word, urged Midnight into a run, fading into the tree-line. The other three dragons, by the command of their owners, took off into the air, and followed Ayesha, whose dragon was sprinting below them. "Does she even know where she's going?" Zane questioned. I shrugged, as I jumped onto the back of my dragon. "I guess we'll find out!" I concluded, as I took off, following The Legion. I could see the other four start up their vehicles, and speed off towards the four dragons ahead of me.

Looking ahead of me, it was apparent that Ayesha did know where she was going, as she followed the exact path we had taken to get to the village. Curious, I urged the ultra-dragon ahead to level with Starlight, Spike and Hydro. "Hey!" I called out to the three ninja, "How does she know where she's going?" Matt shrugged, as Max swerved his dragon around so it was next to mine. "She's just freaky like that!" he told me with a wink. Jayde rolled her eyes at the psychic ninja's childish antics, and answered me, "I don't know. Ask her!" she suggested.

So I pulled the ultra-dragon in for a running landing, as it matched its pace with Midnight's. "Hey, Ayesha!" I called the shadow ninja, "How do you know the way back to the Bounty?" She turned towards me, and answered, "I'm following the tracks from when those four," she gestured to where Kai, Zane, Cole and Jay were behind her, "drove this way. Midnight is also following their scents from when they came to the village." She finished. I nodded in understanding, as I took off once more, and took my original position behind the other three members of the Legion.

I had to admit; I was impressed. I never would have thought of following tracks. But even so, after her comment on my dragon's four heads, I was determined to show her that the ultra-dragon was better than hers. So, without another thought, I landed again, hurtling past Ayesha in a burst of speed. I looked back at her over my shoulder, only to find that she had a stubborn and resolute expression on her face as she urged Midnight forward, and easily overtook me. I frowned; Midnight was fast, and we were almost at the Bounty.

But I was dead set on beating Ayesha, so I pushed the ultra-dragon forward, so I was level with Midnight and prepared for a burst of speed, when Jayde and Starlight zoomed right past us in the air, and landed next to the Bounty. "Hey!" I cried indignantly, "I was gonna beat Ayesha!" Jayde smiled sweetly, and shrugged. Ayesha then took the opportunity to speed past the ultra-dragon and I, skidding to a stop next to Jayde. "Ha!" she yelled triumphantly, "I beat you!"

"Hey!" I complained, "That's not fair! I was talking to Jayde!" Ayesha just grinned wolfishly as I brought the ultra-dragon to a stop next to her. "Who said anything about playing fair?" she asked, as the Max and Matt landed beside Jayde, and Jay, Zane, Cole and Kai arrived at the scene, and transformed their vehicles back into their golden weapons.

Jayde then began whispering to Starlight, who inclined her head once, and took off from the ground, reaching the altitude of the clouds, before flying away. Matt and Max then did the same, as their dragons followed Starlight into the distance. Ayesha pulled a note out of a hidden pocket in her suit, and tied it to Midnight's foreleg. She kissed the reptile on the top of the head, whispering something as she did so, and dismissed it to the skies, following the other three. Ayesha then turned her attention to the Destiny's Bounty.

"Nice ship, but how do you plan on sailing it without any water?" she asked smugly. I grinned; this was my chance to prove her wrong. "It doesn't need water. The Destiny's Bounty is a flying ship!" I announced proudly. Ayesha looked at me for a second, and then burst out laughing. "A flying ship? Yeah right!" she chuckled.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you go inside, and we'll take off?" Challenged Kai, who was obviously irritated.

Suddenly, a slightly panicked look crossed Ayesha's face, but it was gone as quickly as it came, which made me wonder if it was even there in the first place. I frowned; something wasn't quite right, but before I could further contemplate what had happened, Jayde skipped up to Ayesha, whispered something to her, and walked into the ship. Almost hesitantly, Ayesha followed the ninja of light into the Destiny's Bounty. "Hey! Wait for me!" Max cried indignantly, as he ran inside the ship. Matt just rolled his eyes at Max, and walked leisurely into the Bounty.

"Hey Lloyd," Cole began from behind me, "Ayesha's dragon has wings! Why didn't she fly like the others?" I paused for a moment. Earlier, I had thought that maybe Midnight had some kind of problem with her wings, but after seeing her fly off with the Hydro, Spike and Starlight, that couldn't be right. "I don't know," I replied truthfully, "Maybe it was just so she could follow the trails on the ground?" Cole shrugged, seeming to accept my reasoning, and walked into the Bounty. Zane, Kai and Jay followed his example, as I got back onto the ultra-dragon, and flew it into the dragon stables.

After settling my dragon into the stables, I headed downstairs and onto the main deck of the Bounty, to see how everything was going with Sensei and Nya. Sure enough, everyone was gathered down there, talking about strategies to capture the monster that had been terrorizing Ninjago. "I think we should just go up to it like, BOOYA! And then it'd be all like, BAM and CRASH and we'd catch it in this massive unbreakable cage!" Suggested Max, who then received numerous exasperated stares.

"Patience, young ninja," Sensei chided, "You will face the beast when the time is right." That was when I decided I'd procrastinated long enough, and I walked into the room, taking the only empty seat, which was between Ayesha and Zane. Kai then perked up, and made a suggestion, "Well maybe we could just set a trap for it; like make a decoy village, and use some sort of cage or pit or something to catch it!" All ten of us nodded in favour of the idea, until Ayesha found fault with it. "But what are we going to use to lure it? And what kind of trap will we use? I mean, no one even knows what this thing looks like! Not even the villagers who were attacked by it!"

She had a point there. We all thought for a minute, before Nya piped up, "Why don't we just look for it then? All we need to do is see it once, maybe if we could-"

"It's not that simple." Matt interjected. Jayde nodded in agreement, before speaking, "The monster isn't visible. It's always enveloped in a thick layer of fog."

Ayesha then spoke up, "Which is why it's commonly known as the Fog Monster." Max's head shot up from the table, as he shouted excitedly, "Fogster! You know, Fog Monster? Fogster?" everyone just looked at him incredulously.

"Really, Max?" Jayde asked sarcastically, "Of all the ridiculous things he could come up with…" she finished with a playful shake of her head.

"Well," Ayesha began, "It is a good name, though. Easier than saying Fog Monster, and cooler than saying monster!" Jayde just sighed, and smiled at her teammate.

I thought for a moment; how would we be able to clear the fog from the monster's body?

"Well why don't we just think about it for a minute," I began, "What is fog made of?"  
"Water!" Ayesha exclaimed, realizing what I was getting at.

"Exactly," I nodded, and who better to control water than the water ninja himself?" I concluded with a glance in Matt's direction. Matt nodded slowly; it seemed to make sense to him. "So I just use my normal water manipulation powers on the fog?" he asked. Jayde nodded, before speaking, "Then we'll be able to get a good look at what we're up against, and be able to set a trap for it!" she answered decidedly.

"Wait a minute!" Kai interjected, "How are we going to find it in the first place?" "Well when have you four," I gestured to the Legion, "seen the monster?" Max thought for a minute, and then piped up, "Only when it's attacking villages, really…" he trailed off. That wasn't helpful. We couldn't just wait for it to attack a village; it wasn't right. "Where does it go after attacking?" Zane questioned. "Nobody knows," Ayesha began, "It burrows underground. Midnight and I tried tracking it, but it covers its tracks up as it goes."

"Maybe I would be able to find out where it went last time." Cole suggested, "I might be able to track it by the movements it makes underground!" Now that was a good idea. All we needed to do was get back to the village where the monster had last disappeared. Apparently Jay was thinking the same thing. "Well, what are we waiting for?" he asked, "Lets go check out the village!"

"Wait," Ayesha interrupted, "How are us four supposed to get there?" she asked. "Can't you just ride your dragons?" I responded. Max shook his head, before replying, "We sent the dragons back to Morgan and Trinity. They need a rest; we've been using them all week almost non-stop." I nodded in understanding. "Hang on," Kai began, "Who are Morgan and Trinity?"

"They're dragon keepers." Matt explained, "They take care of dragons. They live all the way up in the mountains, though, because the dragons need a lot of room to fly around."

"Yeah, and that was where Matt and I got our dragons!" Max enthused, "They were still babies when we first got them, though…" he trailed off. "Jayde and Ayesha are lucky," he continued, "because their dragons chose them."

"Chose them?" Cole asked, "What do you mean chose them?"

"It's when a wild dragon sees a potential rider. They form a special link with them through their minds, and it enables them to speak to one another through means of telepathy." Jayde explained.

"So they weren't protecting your golden weapons?" Zane asked. All four members of the Legion shook their heads, as Matt spoke, "Our golden weapons weren't guarded by anything. We just had to overcome various natural obstacles." He explained.

"Yeah!" Max exclaimed, "When we were getting my one, there was this huge volcano that we had to climb up, and my axe was at the top, and when I pulled it out the volcano erupted! It was so cool! And then Matt's katanas, we had to use this tiny little rowboat to get to them, and when he got them, this huge wave smashed our boat, and we all had to swim back! And Jayde's bow was all the way up in the sky, and there was this tornado, and we almost got sucked into it but we didn't! And Ayesha's daggers were in this place where it was pitch black; like, we couldn't see anything, and these freaky voices kept telling us the wrong ways to go, and then Ayesha found the daggers, and then we had to get out again!" he finished, taking a deep breath at the end, as he had forgotten to breathe.

"And I thought Jay was the only person who did that…" Kai joked.

"Anyway, back to the topic at hand," Ayesha interjected, "We need to get back to the village so that Cole can track the monster! What are we waiting for?" And with that, everyone stood up, and prepared to return to the village. "Wait a second!" Jayde pointed, "We still haven't figured out how us four are supposed to get there!" I sighed; Jayde was right.

"Can't you guys just turn your golden weapons into vehicles like we did?" Jay asked. Matt shook his head, while replying, "We've never tried doing anything like that before."

"Really?" Cole asked. The Legion nodded in affirmative. "Well it's easy," he continued, "You just have to concentrate all your elemental energy into your weapon, and… yeah!" he explained.

"But before you try it, we should probably go outside." I suggested. Everyone nodded, as we ran outside, eager to see what kinds of vehicles the members of the Legion would have. "Who wants to go first?" Jayde asked.

Max shrugged offhandedly as he pulled his axe off his back, and closed his eyes in concentration. His axe was then enveloped in a bright red glow, and transformed into what looked like a large, red sports car with turbo blasters and light armor plated on the sides. "Whoa, sick!" he exclaimed. "I have a super Ferrari!" Then he moved to hug the vehicle, while declaring, "I'm going to call you The Psychic Racer!"

Matt rolled his eyes at Max's comment, as he unsheathed his two katanas from his back, which then began to glow dark blue. When the glow cleared, the two katanas were revealed to have turned into a dark blue motorboat with multiple guns in various places. "Hey, what the heck!" Matt complained, "How am I supposed to drive this on land?" As if to answer his question, four wheels unfolded themselves from the sides of the boat. "Cool!" Matt exclaimed, "My boat can go on land and in water!"

"What're you going to call it?" asked Max. Matt thought for a few seconds, before replying, "The Amphibian!"

"Well, I guess it's my turn!" Jayde spoke, obviously excited, as she held her bow out in front of her, and closed her eyes. The bow was surrounded in a white light, as it transformed into… a surfboard with a pole on it? "Huh?" Jayde asked, "What is it?" Ayesha shrugged, as Jayde approached it and tapped the surfboard with her foot. When she did so, it began to glow white, and lifted about half a metre off the ground. "It's a hoverboard!" Jayde exclaimed with glee, as she hopped onto it, and grabbed the bar. "See, and you hold onto this!" she explained.

"What are you going to call yours?" Ayesha asked the ninja of light.

"The Beam Board!" Jayde announced, without skipping a beat.

Ayesha then unsheathed her two daggers, and twirled them in her hands once, as they were immersed in a black shadow-like glow. Ayesha the stepped back from her daggers, which had transformed into a large, heavily armored black motorcycle. "Nice!" the shadow ninja complimented, as she swung a leg over the side of the bike, "I was hoping it was going to be something cool! I know the perfect name for you…" Ayesha spoke to the bike, "I'm going to call you The Terminator!" she exclaimed with a fist-pump.

I shook my head jokingly; the Legion were, by far, the strangest group of people I had ever met. This was going to be interesting.

A.N: Phew! Glad I finished writing that! Don't forget to review, guys!


	3. Chapter 3

A.N: Hey guys! Sorry I haven't really been updating as frequently as I would like, but I have several difficult situations going on right now, one of which being that my family and I had to evacuate our home yesterday because of major bushfires spreading across the country. But anyway, remember to review! Every author loves reviews, whether they're good or bad ;)

**_Lloyd_**

As we were heading back to the village where the fog monster had last disappeared, Ayesha and Jayde had decided to race each other. I could clearly see, from above on my ultra-dragon, that they were both still a bit shaky on their vehicles; still getting the hang of it. Jayde would wobble occasionally on her Beam Board, and Ayesha would fumble with the gears on The Terminator every now and then. But still, they persevered on, both refusing to lose the race.

Currently, Jayde was in the lead, her hoverboard being more light and mobile than Ayesha's heavily armoured motorbike. But if I had learned anything about the feisty shadow ninja in the few hours I'd known her, it was that she was prideful (excessively so), and she would not tolerate losing to anyone, regardless of the circumstances.

I watched with great interest, as Ayesha gripped the handlebars of The Terminator, and accelerated the bike further. She was now level with Jayde's Beam Board, but apparently, coming in equal first place just wasn't enough for the shadow ninja, as she shifted the motorcycle up another gear, and shot past Jayde.

Jayde, being the more relaxed person she was, seemed perfectly fine with her teammate taking the lead. She smiled, shaking her head playfully at Ayesha's determined attitude, as she glanced over her shoulder to check on Max and Matt.

The ninja of psychic and water were having a highly animated conversation about Fist to Face 2. "Yeah, once I did that combo move, where it kills the enemy in one hit! But then I had to recharge my energy for like, 50 hours!" Max enthused, taking his eyes off the path in front of him to see Matt's reaction. Matt glanced over at the psychic ninja quickly, doing a double-take shortly afterwards, as he realised that the naive hazel eyed boy wasn't looking where he was going. "Max! Keep your eyes on the road! Err, path! Whatever it is!" Matt panicked. "Huh? Oh right! Sorry, I forgot!" Max replied, regaining his focus.

Shaking my head at their antics, I switched my focus to my four teammates, who were arguing below me. "It's not that bad!" Cole insisted. "Really! You guys just have no appreciation for good food!" he reasoned. Kai shook his head, while replying decidedly, "Dude, I almost puked last night! What did you even put in that pie anyway?" he questioned. Cole thought for a minute, and then recounted, "Well, I added some fish, some blueberries, some chilli… Oh! And a tiny bit of lemon peel!"

"Gross, Cole! That's disgusting! Who puts blueberries and fish in a pie together anyway?" Jay complained. Zane nodded in agreement, while suggesting, "Perhaps you should just stick to the recipe, Cole?" Cole huffed, and steered the Tread Assault away from the Blade Cycle, the Storm Fighter and the Snowmobile, sulking in solitary.

I laughed at Cole's childish antics, as I continued flying at a steady pace. I could now see the village, less than a minute's travel away. Suddenly, I had an evil thought; I could shoot ahead of Ayesha, and get to the village before her, to get back at her for beating me on the way to the Bounty. So, grinning like a maniac, I urged the ultra-dragon forwards, and swooped down from the sky, just in front of Ayesha as she was about to cross the border-line into the village.

"Hey!" she cried indignantly, "That's not fair! I was racing Jayde, not you!" I smirked at her, before repeating her words from earlier, "Who said anything about playing fair?" Ayesha fumed silently, before jumping off The Terminator, and transforming it back into her Twin Daggers of Shadow. "Whatever," she commented offhandedly, "You have your little victory. But I _will_ beat you next time!" she concluded. I shrugged at the shadow ninja, while replying, "Yeah, we'll see about that."

That was when Jayde arrived, pulling the Beam Board to an abrupt stop, and almost falling off. She hopped onto the ground, before stepping on one end of the hover-board, effectively flipping it up into the air, where it transformed back into the Bow of Light. "Show off…" Ayesha muttered, while Jayde slung the bow over her back once more, smiling sweetly.

Then Max came roaring into the village, with Matt trailing behind him. "Whoa!" the psychic ninja yelled in triumph, "This thing is so cool!" Matt shook his head jokingly at the other ninja, as he climbed out of The Amphibian, and transformed them back into his katanas. "Get real, Max," the water ninja began, "The Amphibian is way cooler than your Psychic Racer!" he bragged, as Ayesha marched up to the two.

"Guys, seriously, your vehicles are both pretty cool, but mine is obviously the best!" she deduced. Jayde just rolled her eyes, as she watched her three teammates arguing like a bunch of five-year-olds. Then, Kai, Zane, Cole and Jay entered the village; they had apparently started arguing about Cole's cooking again. "Maybe we should ban him from the kitchen?" Kai suggested. Cole looked up in shock, "No! You can't do that! The kitchen is my passion; my sanctuary!" I decided to join the conversation. "A few days ago, you said the same thing about your ninja suit." The other three cracked up, remembering the incident.

Suddenly, an arrow was shot through the middle of the group. I looked around, to see Jayde with her bow drawn with another arrow. "Geez, is that your only way of making people shut up?" Kai complained to the ninja of light. "I mean, it's dangerous! You could've shot one of us!" he continued. I had to admit, Kai was right. It would be annoying if every time Jayde wanted someone to shut up, she just shot an arrow at them. Kai continued speaking, "Haven't you ever heard of asking?" The ninja and I nodded in agreement. "I did ask." Jayde stated, matter-of-factly, "Multiple times." She elaborated. Kai smiled sheepishly at the light ninja, who was staring pointedly at him.

Meanwhile, Ayesha, Matt and Max were still arguing over whose vehicle was the best. "But mine looks like a Ferrari!" Max whined, as Ayesha continued listing reasons why The Terminator was better than The Amphibian and the Psychic Racer. "42, it's a cooler colour. 43, motorbikes are way cooler than boats and cars. 44, it has a cooler name. 45, it looks like it came from a Halo game! And Halo is the most epic game EVER!" she concluded. "It is not!" Matt complained, "Mario Kart is so much better than Halo! That game is too… Violent…" he trailed off. Ayesha gaped at Matt, before insisting, "That's what makes it such an awesome game!"

"Guys!" Jayde exclaimed at the trio, who all turned to face the ninja of light, before responding, "What?" simultaneously. Jayde rolled her eyes, before approaching her teammates, and speaking, "Remember why we're here in the first place?" she asked rhetorically. Ayesha immediately pulled herself together, and marched over to where we were. I could have sworn I saw the faintest tinge of pink on her cheeks, but it was gone when she turned around again, to speak to us.

"Cole! We need you to track the mons-"

"Fogster!" Max interrupted her. Ayesha slowly turned to face the psychic ninja, who was trying his best not to crack up. The shadow ninja death-stared her teammate, who averted his eyes, and immediately became sober again. "As I was saying," Ayesha continued, as if nothing had happened, "We need you to track the _monster _for us." She made a point to stress the word monster. "It burrowed here," she gestured to a patch of dirt.

Cole nodded, and walked up to the spot Ayesha had pointed to, placing his left hand on the ground, and closing his eyes in concentration. "There's been disturbance under the ground… That way!" Cole deduced triumphantly, pointing to the right, before jogging in the direction he had sensed the monster. All eight of us followed the earth ninja eagerly, as he placed his hand on the ground again, and took off once more.

After about an hour of this procedure, Cole had lead us far away from the village, and into a large, open plain; almost like a desert. There was nothing to be seen for miles around, except the village, which appeared as a tiny speck on the horizon. "Ugh…" Max complained, "I'm bored! Can we at least have a snack break?" he asked.

"No!" Ayesha chided, "Max, the last time you said you wanted to have a snack break, you camped out in your room for six hours, doing nothing but eating popcorn and playing Fist to Face 2!" Max opened his mouth, as if to retaliate, but couldn't come up with a response, closing his mouth and staring at his feet.

"Besides," Ayesha continued, "We must be close by now! Right Cole?" she asked uncertainly. When she received no response, the shadow ninja glanced behind her to see Cole burrowing in the dirt like a dog. She then walked up to me, and asked, "Does he do that a lot?" I shook my head; I'd seen Cole do some pretty weird things, but never something like this.

"Guys!" cried Cole, with his head underground, "I think I found it!" The whole group and I ran over to where Cole had dug the hole, and pushed each other out of the way to get a look at what was down there. To my disappointment, the hole was filled with nothing but dirt, as Cole pulled his head out, his dark hair covered in the dusty, brown substance. "Where is it?" Zane asked, confused.

"It's just under here!" Cole enthused, before frowning. "But there's some major activity going on down there; the monster must be pretty huge!" he reasoned.

"Well, we should probably go down there and check it out!" Jay suggested. Jayde nodded in agreement, as she added "But we should be quiet about it; and not let the monster know we're there. I mean, for all we know, it could be more dangerous than anything we've ever heard of before." Matt and Ayesha nodded in agreement, while Max began scratching absentmindedly in the dirt with his finger.

So, the nine of us spent the next few minutes digging in the ground, according to Cole's directions. Finally, we found a large, hollowed out chamber about five metres underground. "Do we really have to go down there?" Jayde asked, peering into the filthy chamber from above. "Unfortunately." Matt replied regretfully.

"Well, who wants to go down first?" I asked, not particularly wanting to go down myself. "Not me!" Max yelled desperately.

"Nope!" Jay and Cole chorused simultaneously.

"Not really…" Zane trailed off. Ayesha rolled her eyes, and pushed Max and Matt out of the way, as she jumped into the pit, landing in a roll.

"Come on you babies!" she teased. "Are you too scared to jump into a hole?" Feeling the need to prove the shadow ninja wrong, I flipped down into the pit, landing next to her. Following my example, the other seven members of the team climbed hesitantly after me. "Okay," Ayesha began quietly, "I think we can assume that the monster went that way," she pointed in the direction of a small tunnel, just big enough to crawl through. "When we get in there, though, we need to be silent. We leave no trace! Got it?" she asked firmly. Without giving anyone time to reply, she continued, "Good. Now let's go!"

She crept stealthily to the entrance of the tunnel, glancing around the inside, before kneeling down and beginning to crawl through. I followed Ayesha through the passageway, only just being able to fit inside the narrow tunnel. The rest of the team were soon to follow, Kai, Jayde, Matt, Zane, Cole, Jay, and finally, Max crawled through, after what seemed like a lot of mental conflict on his behalf.

Suddenly, Ayesha stopped moving, almost causing me to crash into her. "Why'd you stop moving?" I whispered. She put her index finger to her lips, indicating for me to be silent, as she pointed to the dirt in front of her. But when I looked, I saw that it wasn't dirt at all; it was metal. I frowned; this meant that this was not just a rogue monster. This was something that had been planned by a comprehensive mind; something that had been planned by a human.

A.N: Hehe… I was gonna write more, but I thought I'd leave it there… Just to be cruel ;) Anyways, I don't own Ferrari, Halo, Mario Kart or anything else I mentioned ;) Remember to review, guys, it would really make my day.


	4. Chapter 4

A.N: Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter; it means a lot! I'll be mentioning two new characters this chapter: Morgan Lucan and Trinity Animi (I'll be introducing them next chapter!). They both belong to the wonderful Hex the Ninja! So for all of you that are currently reading TPo9 (The Prophecy of Nine), I'm going to take a break on it; and I won't update it until I finish writing this story. So, hope you like this chapter! Remember to review, guys!

**_Ayesha_**

I had come up with quite a few theories for why the monster was attacking; but nothing like this. As soon as I felt the smooth, cold texture of metal beneath the skin of my palms, I came to an abrupt stop. Metal. That could only mean one thing. This whole monster incident was not just some starved creature looking for an easy meal; this was a planned attack. A planned attack by what I assumed could only be a human.

I motioned for Lloyd to pass the message back, and as he did so, I heard a couple of disbelieving gasps. I frowned to myself; there was no use in procrastinating any longer. Almost hesitantly, I moved my right hand forward, to continue making my way through the once natural tunnel, which had now become a cold, industrial prison.

All nine of us made slow, but steady progression, and as we did so, I began hearing faint noises from the unknown ahead of me. My ears were subjected to the torturous sounds that were the cries of what I assumed was the monster. I had never heard the monster make any sort of noise before; and I wish I'd never have had to hear it. Its roaring sounded like a thousand crooked nails being scraped mercilessly against a chalkboard.

I winced internally, as I persevered on. I noticed, to my dismay, that as we continued, the tunnel was becoming darker and darker. Soon, we would be engulfed in complete obscurity. Of course, I wasn't worried about myself; darkness is no problem for the ninja of shadows. I was worried about my teammates. I dismissed those negative thoughts from my mind, and closed my eyes for a few minutes, as I progressed with the now familiar action of placing my hands and knees routinely on the cold, unforgiving floor.

When I decided to open my eyes again, I found that my earlier prediction was correct; we were now crawling in the darkness. Suddenly, as I moved to place my right hand forward, I found there was no longer metal beneath it. Imbalanced, I toppled forward, off the metal, only just managing to restrain myself from making any kind of noise.

To my relief, I realized that I had not fallen off a complete drop; rather, I had begun my descent down a hellishly steep slide. A few seconds later, I heard Lloyd yelp softly; obviously he had also begun to fall down the steeply engineered slab of metal. After Lloyd, there were a couple more squeaks and gasps from my other teammates, but other than that, everyone was silent; the only noises to be heard were the soft whisper of fabric against the polished surface of the slide, and the cries of whatever lay ahead.

A few seconds later, I found myself sliding vertically, as opposed to the steep drop I had been travelling down, and the light was slowly returning to the underground passage. Suddenly, I could no longer feel the cold metal of the slide beneath me, as I fell about a metre onto the ground; which I noticed was a grate. Now everything was clearly visible; there were industrial style lights placed at various intervals around the room.

I rolled off my stomach noiselessly, but before I could do anything else, I felt a weight drop onto me. Acting instinctively, I pushed whatever had landed on me off, stood up, and drew my daggers. I relaxed, and sighed with relief as I realized that it was only Lloyd. The green ninja stood up with a groan, his cheeks stained a faint pink colour. "Sorry." I whispered, "It was instinctive." I explained, truthfully. Lloyd simply nodded at my explanation, and darted out of the way as Kai sped down the slide, and landed on the floor below.

Kai shook his head a couple of times, and prepared to stand up, as Jayde flew off the end of the slide, landing on the dazed fire ninja. Immediately, Jayde shot up and began a series of whispered apologies. Kai just smiled, and whispered, "That's ok, Jayde." As soon as he finished doing so, though, Matt fell off the end of the slide, landing on Kai. "What the…?" the water ninja began, but before he could finish, Zane, Cole and Jay landed on him, effectively knocking the wind out of his lungs. Before any of them could get up, Max came rocketing down the slide, a delighted look on his face, and landed right on top of everyone else in the pile.

I began silently laughing then; the scene before me was just too funny. Soon after, Lloyd, Jayde, and everyone else in the pile joined in, except Kai, who was struggling to get out. Max hopped off the top, coming to stand with us, as Jay, Cole, Zane and Matt followed suit. Only Kai was left on the ground, a grimace on his face. "Geez, that hurt!" He complained, before slowly dragging himself to his feet, and coming to stand with the rest of us.

"Okay," I began quietly, "We need to be silent when we get in there," I gestured to the door at the front of the room, "and find that monster. Matt, as soon as we see it, you need to get rid of the fog. Any questions?" I concluded. No one spoke. I nodded once, as I stealthily approached the door, drawing my Twin Daggers of Shadow, and pushing the door open silently.

Motioning for the others to follow me, I entered the room, to find that it was in fact a large balcony, opening out to a view of a much larger underground area. Cautiously, the nine of us approached the edge of the balcony, surrounded by the screeches of the monster, bouncing off the industrial, metal walls.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see, as we caught the first glimpse of what was below. In the formation of a square, were hundreds; no, thousands of horrifying, mutated beasts. They had lumpy, humanoid bodies, with muddy greenish brown skin. They had twisted limbs and facial features, including yellowed fangs and claws. They had beady, ice blue eyes that darted around, seemingly unable to remain stationary. Currently, they were all shrieking a twisted hymn in a discordant harmony. The words had been inaudible from a distance, but now that I could see and hear the nightmarish creatures, the lyrics were apparent:

_Days and nights of endless waiting_

_The humans we will soon be baiting_

_Lure them into evil traps_

_Their civilization will collapse_

_We will get our ultimate revenge_

_We will get our ultimate revenge…_

They trailed off, ending in a scratchy wheezing noise, which sounded like they were choking. With a start, I realized that they were laughing. I glanced around at the rest of my team; they all had the same horrified looks on their faces as I did. Suddenly, a few of the monsters enveloped themselves in a thick fog, and began emitting fire from their unnaturally irregular mouths. I gasped; these were the fog monsters! All this time, I, along with the rest of The Legion had always thought that there was only _one _monster; not a whole army! This was turning out to be a lot worse than I had thought.

I motioned frantically for my teammates to move away from the balcony and back into the room we had landed in. When we were all assembled, I began to whisper urgently, "This is a lot, lot worse than we thought! We need to get out of here; fast!" The others nodded in agreement, as Max tried desperately to climb the slab of metal that had previously acted as a slide. He kept sliding down, though. "Max," I soothed, "Calm down. It's going to be alright. We're all going to get out of here. You just need to calm down." The psychic ninja seemed to follow my advice, as he slowly crawled off the end of the slide.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" I asked the team. Everyone shook their heads helplessly, as tears began to pool in the corners of Max's eyes. That set me off. Max was the youngest member of The Legion, and as the eldest, I always felt the need to protect the others; specifically Max. So, a sort of maternal alarm went off inside my head, as I steeled my resolve, and began to speak again. "Everyone, take your gloves and shoes off." I instructed. They all obliged, as I continued speaking the next step. "Now, anyone with a sharp weapon, help me dig out hand-grips in the metal, climbing as we went." Max, Kai, Matt, Cole, Zane, Lloyd, Jayde (who was determined to help by using her arrows) and I all began working on the metal, which was surprisingly easy to cut through.

Jay kept watch near the balcony, to make sure none of the monsters had seen us. After about half an hour, Jayde triumphantly dug out the last hole in the metal. "It's done!" she whispered down to us, as she climbed up into the tunnel. Jay took one last look around the large assembly of creatures, and joined the rest of us in climbing the ladder. "Be careful, guys," Lloyd warned, "The holes are pretty roughly cut. You could hurt yourself quite badly on them."

Kai, being the one at the top of the ladder, reached the end first, and attempted to climb out. When he discovered that he couldn't Jayde giggled lightly, and stuck out her hand, which the fire ninja grudgingly accepted, and pulled him up. Kai then moved to haul Zane up, who pulled Cole up, and so on.

After about a minute, everyone was up the top, except Jay and I. Lloyd grabbed my hand and pulled me up into the tunnel; I was so relieved that I didn't have to do any more climbing. I then reached down, and pulled Jay up, behind me. We all crawled as quickly as possible; none of us wanted to be in that tunnel any longer than necessary.

Max was crawling in front of Lloyd, so when he began to cry, I was one of the first people to notice. "Max?" I asked, genuinely concerned, "What's wrong?" the psychic ninja turned to face me, to reveal that what I had thought were tears of sadness were, in reality, tears of joy. "The dirt is back!" he exclaimed. Sure enough, Max was right. His right hand was placed on the soil.

I grinned, and scrambled forward, almost crawling over Lloyd in the process, just to get onto the dirt again. When my left hand touched the dusty, brown substance, I felt immediately as if a great weight had been lifted off my chest. We were free!

After less than a minute of speed crawling through the tunnel, we found ourselves in the large underground chamber we had arrived in. We all climbed out with ease; the rocky wall had natural footholds, and rejoiced at the feeling of finally being out in the open air again. "Thank Mario we got out of there!" Max yelled at the top of his lungs, happy that he no longer had to whisper. I raised an eyebrow. "Thank Mario? Really, Max?" He shrugged.

"Hey, it was all I could come up with!" he responded.

"But, we have a huge problem on our hands, guys." I stated, feeling bad for destroying the team's good mood. "Yeah, Ayesha's right," Jay agreed, "There's a whole army of fog monsters down there!" Everyone nodded in silent agreement, and thought for a minute. "Hey!" Matt cried, "What about Morgan?" I snapped my gaze to his immediately. Why didn't I think of that earlier? Morgan was bound to know something about these creatures!

"Wait, who's Morgan again?" Kai asked, obviously lost.

"Morgan is a dragon keeper! Remember, we told you that we sent our dragons to her before!" Max enthused. Kai nodded vaguely, along with the rest of his team.

"We need to get to Morgan and Trinity, guys!" I exclaimed, transforming my daggers into The Terminator. The rest of the team followed suit, as Lloyd called the ultra-dragon.

All nine of us sped off together towards the large mountain range where Morgan and Trinity lived. To be honest, I wasn't too keen on the dragon keeper's home; it was too high up for my liking. But unfortunately, we had no choice. Don't get me wrong; I like Morgan and Trinity! I mean, it was nice to have someone else that I could really relate to, in that Morgan and I both shared similar pasts.

Little did most people know, I was a completely different person when not surrounded by my team. Without them, I was incomplete; like a puzzle with a missing piece. And so, I resolved that inner conflict by becoming a totally different person; like Morgan did. She was usually quiet and introverted; generally attempting to stay distant from anyone who could possibly care about her.

Ten years ago, when Morgan was just eight, she lost her parents to cold, brutal murder. She ran away then, living on the streets for seven years, until she met Trinity, who was ten at the time. Trinity had been living in an orphanage for six years; having been taken away from her home because of her severely abusive parents. When the two met each other, Morgan helped Trinity escape from the orphanage. Now, three years later the two are inseparable; each one willing to give their life for the other.

I looked ahead of me; the mountains were closer now; probably about an hour away. I sighed, as I continued driving towards Morgan and Trinity's home. Looking behind me, I could see that Kai and Jay were arguing about Fist to Face 2, while Cole was getting cooking lessons from Zane. Above me, Lloyd was riding the ultra-dragon. He grinned at me, and waved, almost losing control of the massive dragon. I laughed to myself as I waved back; this team was probably the strangest group of people I had ever met.

Jayde was riding her Beam Board on my left, seemingly deep in thought. I didn't want to disturb her, so I looked around for Max and Matt. Sure enough, they were on my right; arguing over whose dragon was better. Usually, I would have joined the argument, insisting that Midnight was the best, but I didn't feel like it now; I couldn't explain why.

Suddenly, a grey pigeon flew down from behind me and began flying alongside me. I frowned, as I stretched my hand out, accepting the message that the bird was grasping in its claw. Opening the note with my right hand, I scanned the contents briefly:

_Dear Ayesha,_

_We miss you, and we're sorry for everything. Please come back to us. We promise, things will be different this time. Please; we need you._

I didn't need to read who it was from, as I scrunched the note up in my hand, and dropped it beside me, leaving it in the dust. Would they ever stop? They had been sending similar notes every few days since last week; all delivered by the same pigeon. Should I go back, though? Or should I leave them in pain like this?

'Let them suffer', I thought, 'They deserve it'. I clenched my teeth, and dug my nails into the handlebars of The Terminator, as I thought about my mother and brother. My vision began to go red, and I quickly shook my head out of my thoughts; I didn't want to release my anger on anyone here. So, I took a deep breath in, and focused on the mountains ahead of me.

We were closer now; about half an hour away. I sighed; I hated long trips. They were so boring. I looked up at Lloyd, who was currently reclining against the ultra-dragon's four necks. He looked bored. "Hey Lloyd!" I called. He opened an eye, and looked down at me. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Do you want to race?" I asked, as he sat down on the ultra-dragon properly, and grabbed the reins again. "Yeah sure!" he enthused, as he sped up, and shot ahead of me. I frowned; this wasn't going to be easy.

But despite that, I leaned forwards on my bike, and shifted to fifth gear, speeding ahead of Jayde, Max and Matt, and leveling effortlessly with Lloyd. "Is that all you've got?" I questioned. "You wish!" he exclaimed, as he zoomed ahead once more. I accelerated the bike, and passed the ultra-dragon, grinning like a maniac; this was the most fun I'd had in a while. I had to admit; it was a brilliant way to pass time. At accelerated speeds, we'd get there sooner!

I looked behind me, to see that Lloyd and I weren't the only ones racing; everyone else was catching up to us; fast. I grinned even wider, and shifted the bike into sixth gear, as I shot forward, passing Lloyd again. "Ha!" I cried triumphantly, "I'm winning!" But the others were still steadily gaining on me, and Lloyd had passed me again. "Damn…" I muttered, accelerating further. Suddenly, Jay zoomed over my head in the Storm Fighter. When I thought things couldn't get any worse, Jayde, Max, Zane and Kai passed me as well. I growled to myself, determined not to lose.

But to my dismay, there were no more gears to shift into; I could only accelerate. So, using the last of my willpower, I pushed the acceleration to the limit, blasting me forward in a burst of speed. I was going fast; but not fast enough. My motorbike, although it was decidedly smaller than a lot of the other vehicles, was incredibly heavy, being built for defense and attack, rather than speed or stealth. I cursed to myself; but then I had a brilliant idea. Lifting my index finger and thumb to my mouth, I let out a piercing whistle.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, Midnight came soaring down from the mountains, and landed next to me, breaking into a jog. I leapt onto her scaly back, and reached out my hand to grab my two daggers, which I had transformed from The Terminator. Grinning, I urged my dragon into a sprint, which she happily obliged to. We were now going so fast; I honestly thought my face was going to fall off.

I laughed as Midnight and I passed Jayde, Kai, Zane, Max and Jay, as they all stared after me, surprised that I was now on my dragon. Now there was only Lloyd to beat. He wasn't far ahead; all I had to do was go a tiny bit faster, and I would beat him for sure. _Midnight, _I thought, _I need you to go a little faster!_ The black dragon nodded once in response, before replying, _All right! Don't worry, Mistress! We will defeat Lloyd and the ultra-dragon! _I grinned, as she sped up, before replying,

_Midnight, how many times have I told you not to call me Mistress? Just Ayesha, okay?_

Midnight nodded, and continued running.

Thought communication with dragons was one of the few gifts people like me possessed. People like Jayde and I, meaning people chosen by a dragon. We both had the ability to talk to our dragons through our minds, and comprehend their responses. I looked ahead again, to see how close the mountains were; we were here. Midnight skidded to a stop, as Lloyd swooped down on the ultra-dragon, and everyone else zoomed into the area, cheering as they passed the 'finish line'. Zane and Cole, though, were still discussing cooking lessons, as they leisurely rolled past us, and came to a slow stop.

"What now?" Kai asked Jayde.

"We need to fly up there!" she answered, pointing to the large dojo-like building at the top of the mountain. I swallowed; this was the part I hated the most."Well, Midnight and I had better get going; it'll take us a bit longer to get up there!" I suggested, waving to everyone.

"Wait," Lloyd asked me, "Why don't you just fly up there with the rest of us?" I stopped dead in my tracks. Flight. Just the thought of it made me want to curl up in a little ball and cry.

I shook my head wordlessly, before replying, "I don't fly." Lloyd nodded in understanding. I was glad he didn't ask me why not; I wasn't ready to explain that to anyone who didn't already know. I gripped Midnight's scales with my hands, so I wouldn't fall off, before thinking, _Okay Midnight, it's now or never. _Midnight glanced back at me sadly, before beginning her ascent up the mountain.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply as we moved higher; it was what I always did. Otherwise I would most likely start hyperventilating or having some kind of panic attack. After a few minutes of being jostled around on Midnight's back, she told me, _Ayesha, you can open your eyes now. We have arrived._

Hesitantly, I opened my eyes to see Morgan and Trinity's home in front of me. I smiled shakily, still a bit unnerved by being so high up, and stroked Midnight's head. She purred in joy, and spread her wings to fly up into the air, along with the other various dragons up there.

I sighed, as I turned to face the rest of my teammates, who were waiting for me to join them. I plastered a confident smile on my face, as I walked over next to them, and got ready to go inside. Hopefully Morgan would know what to do.

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Yeah, I know this chapter was a little Ayesha-centric, but I just needed to reveal a little more about her ;) Anyway, next chapter will be from Lloyd's POV! Remember to review, guys!


	5. Chapter 5

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Hope you like this one, and don't forget to review!

**_Lloyd_**

I could only stare in awe at the sight before me. The large dojo-like building in front of me was surrounded by hundreds of dragons of all different shapes, colours and sizes. I gaped in amazement for a few minutes, until Ayesha snapped me out of my thoughts. "Hey, Lloyd! You coming?" she asked, while shaking my shoulder.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm coming." I responded. Ayesha then sheathed her daggers, making them seem as inconspicuous as possible, before asking me, "Where's your sword?"

"Here." I responded, gesturing to the sheath at my side. The shadow ninja nodded, before suggesting, "Keep it in hidden while we're with Morgan in the dragon den. She doesn't like knives." I nodded, a bit confused, before following Ayesha into the building.

If I thought the outside was impressive, it was nothing compared to the inside of the dragon den. The roof was high; excessively so, and it was filled with all kinds of small dragons, fluttering around like insects. Although, unlike insects, they were pleasant to be around, and they made no noises, as they glided gracefully around the room. The floor of the den accommodated the medium sized dragons, who were all lounging around, chattering noisily to each other.

Looking around the room further, I noticed Starlight and Hydro walking around, communicating with other dragons. I assumed that larger dragons, like Midnight and Spike, were kept outside; the room was too small to keep large dragons like them. It was then that I noticed two girls aged about 10 and 18 walking towards us. They must have been Morgan and Trinity.

Morgan, the older one, had pure white hair, and deathly pale skin. Her eyes were a piercing red colour, which made me wonder whether she was actually human. She had a slight, tranquil smile on her face, as she approached the nine of us. Tucked slightly behind her was the young girl who I assumed to be Trinity. She had neatly braided hair, which was a dirty blonde in colour, and dark emerald green eyes, like mine. She was nervously clutching Morgan's side, as the older girl walked towards us.

"Hello." Morgan spoke softly, "Is something wrong? Do you need anything with your dragons? And who are these five?" She questioned, gesturing to us.

"Hi Morgan! Hey Trinity!" Max greeted the two elatedly.

"Yeah, hey you two!" Matt spoke, with a smile.

"Hi!" Jayde chirped, waving at Trinity, who shuffled further behind Morgan with a shy smile. "Hey Morgan!" Ayesha greeted the albino girl, before kneeling down in front of Trinity, "Hey Trinity! Have you guys been taking good care of the dragons for us?" she asked, in a soft voice. Trinity nodded once, before ducking behind Morgan bashfully.

Ayesha smiled at the young girl, before continuing, "These five are other ninja. They're helping us defeat the monsters that we told you about last week." She finished. Morgan frowned, before replying, "Monsters? I was under the impression that there was only one monster!" Jayde shook her head, before explaining,

"We checked it out a couple of hours ago; turns out there's a whole army of them! That's why we came here; to ask if you knew anything about these creatures. They have the ability to cloak themselves in fog and breathe fire, as you already know, and they look vaguely humanoid. They have this greenish-brown skin, and they're all mutated…" Jayde trailed off, looking sickened at the thought of them.

Morgan shook her head slowly, before speaking, "No, I've never heard of them… But I do have a few books that might help!" she finished, before leading us into a room at the very back of the dragon den, which contained shelves full of books, and a desk. "There is a book in here somewhere titled 'Mythological Creatures and Legends'. I think that may be able to help us; if we can find it…" she trailed off.

"Are you kidding?" Kai complained, "It'll take us ages to go through all this stuff!" He was right. There were at least twenty shelves, all packed to the brim with books. "Well, the sooner we get started, the quicker it'll be!" Jayde optimized. The rest of us sighed, walking to different shelves, and pulling out books to check their titles.

"Lloyd!" Ayesha whispered to me, "Come here!" So I nodded, and followed the shadow ninja's voice. "Yeah?" I asked her, once I caught sight of the shadow elemental rifling through various books. "This is boring. Can you stay here and talk to me?" she asked sheepishly. "Yeah, sure thing. If you hadn't have asked, I probably would've come over here to talk to you anyway." I replied.

I then began following Ayesha's example, by pulling books out at random to check if they were the right one. There was one thing nagging me at the back of my mind, though. Why did Ayesha insist that I keep my sword hidden? 'Well,' I thought, 'What better time to ask?' "Hey Ayesha, why do I have to keep my sword hidden?" I voiced my thoughts. Ayesha froze for a second, before slowly turning to face me.

"It's Morgan." She whispered, more softly than before, "She's afraid of knives. See, her parents were killed when she was eight. That's how she met Trinity. She ran away, and helped Trinity escape an orphanage. She still has nightmares about her family's murder; quite frequently, actually." She finished in a hushed tone, so that the red-eyed albino wouldn't hear her. I nodded in sympathy and understanding; I had grown up without my parents, so I knew vaguely what it was like. But at least my parents were alive.

We spent the next few minutes in silence; but it wasn't an awkward silence, more like a companionable silence. A friendly silence. "So," Ayesha began, "How long have you five been ninja?" I thought for a minute; how long had we been ninja?

"About a year, give or take." I estimated. Ayesha nodded, before continuing,

"Yeah, we've been a group for about three years, but individually, I've been a ninja for six years, Jayde's been a ninja for about four years now, Matt has been a ninja for four years as well, and Max has been a ninja his whole life, so that's fifteen years."

I flinched internally; that was harsh. Training since birth. "Why did his parents do that?" I asked the shadow ninja, who shrugged in reply, "They wanted money. They thought if Max became a ninja, it would make them rich. So when we offered to take him into our group at the age of 12, they jumped at the opportunity." She explained. I shook my head in disbelief. There were some pretty screwed up people in this world.

"What about the others?" I asked, "How did they become ninja and join the group?" Ayesha thought for a minute, before replying, "Jayde and I went to the same primary school, but we were in different grades. We went to different high schools, though, and when she was 14, she decided to take up karate, and that's where it all began, I guess. A year later, she was fully qualified, and so, I accepted her into The Legion." I nodded; that sounded reasonable. I would have guessed that Ayesha and Jayde went to the same school at one stage; they seemed to be pretty close.

"Matt grew up in a rich family, and he was sick of everyone treating him differently because of it. So whenever he left the house, he would make himself look normal, and hang around in the streets. He trained in Taekwondo, and mastered it within a year of skipping school. So shortly after I recruited Jayde, we decided to add him to the team." She concluded.

"What about you? How did you become a ninja?" I asked. Ayesha bit her lip, and sighed. I could tell I'd touched a sensitive subject. Oops. "It's complicated. Let's just say I had a bad childhood, and I ran away from home when I was 13. Then I trained myself to become a ninja, and started The Legion when I was sixteen." She finished hurriedly. I nodded, making a mental note not to bring up the subject again.

"So how did you five become ninja?" She asked me.

"Well, Zane, Cole and Jay had already been ninja for a few months, all recruited by Sensei Wu. Kai joined them about a year ago, and Nya's his sister, so she kind of stuck around. Turns out they guy they were trying to defeat was my dad, and they needed the green ninja to do it." Ayesha's eyes widened as I said that, "Yeah, and then they found me and realized I was the green ninja…" I trailed off. What more was there to say, really?

So we kept searching through the books, hoping to find the right one. "How long have we been looking for books?" I asked Ayesha. She thought for a minute, before replying "Probably about half an hour." I sighed; together, we'd only cleared about half a shelf. At this rate, it would take about four hours to search the entire room, even with everyone else's help. "This is going to take ages, just like Kai said!" I complained. Ayesha sighed, before turning to me, and replying, "I know. But we're only going to make it take longer if we stop looking." I nodded, and kept searching.

'Fairytales from the Deep', 'Ancient Prophecies', 'A Complete History of Dragons'… I listed the books in my head. Still no sight of 'Mythological Creatures and Legends'. "Hey Lloyd!" Ayesha perked up from next to me, "Should we play a game?" I nodded in response, before the shadow ninja suggested, "What about… I Spy?" she asked.

"Yeah sure. I'll start!" I volunteered. "Something that starts with F!" I said. Ayesha thought for less than a second, before replying, "Floor?"

"Yeah."

"My turn. Something starting with C!"

"Ceiling?"

"Yup."

The next half an hour basically went along like that, until we ran out of things to spot. "Something beginning with B."

"Book?"

"Yeah. Your turn!"

"Something beginning with B."

"Book?"

"Yes… Okay this is getting pointless." Ayesha declared. I nodded in agreement, as we thought of something else we could do. But before I could say anything, a triumphant cry rang out throughout the room.

"I found it! 'Mythological Creatures and Legends'!" yelled Matt from the other side of the room. Immediately, we all rushed over to him to see the book. Sure enough, the fifteen-year-old boy stood in the middle of the room, holding the book above his head. "Thank god. I thought I was going to die of boredom!" Kai spoke, relieved. Jayde rolled her eyes at the fire ninja, before lightly hitting him on the back of his head. The funny thing was, Kai didn't seem to mind. Strange.

"Hand it to me." Morgan spoke to Max, who gladly handed the book over to the albino dragon keeper, who still had Trinity attached to her side. I immediately felt sorry for the small, green-eyed girl; she was obviously still somewhat traumatized from whatever happened to her before the orphanage. "Is this what you are looking for?" Morgan asked, after flipping through the pages, and opening it at one titled 'The Raptora', which showed a detailed picture of what could only be described as the creatures we had seen in the underground fortress.

"Yeah that's it!" exclaimed Cole, obviously excited. All eleven of us leaned in to get a good look at what the page said.

_History: The Raptora were the original inhabitants of Ninjago, having lived here for several thousand years. When humans settled in Ninjago, at first, a friendly allegiance was made between the two species. They coexisted for a total of 58 years, until human nature got the better of the settlers. They were greedy, and lusted for more power, more money and more land than what they already had. So, in a cold-blooded attack, the humans fought and pillaged the entire Raptora race, eventually driving them to extinction, after 22 years of war._

_Characteristics: Raptora have been sometimes referred to as 'The Indestructible Race', because of their advanced features and characteristics. They have a tough, leathery skin, which is exceptionally hard to cut through. They do, however, have certain areas where the skin is thinner, such as the neck, the centre of the stomach, and the thighs. Their stomachs are at a constant temperature of 80 degrees Celsius, and combined with the special glands that can release highly flammable gas at will, the Raptora have the uncanny ability to breathe fire. They also have pores, which release water vapor, in order to disguise or camouflage themselves. Their fangs and claws contain venom, which is not fatal, but induces sleep for two or more hours, depending on the victim._

_Diet: The Raptora are commonly known to eat small mammals, although they will occasionally kill a larger animal, like a fox, and eat it. Vegetables tend to give them indigestion, and sugar makes them drowsy. _

"But hang on," I started, "This book says they were driven to extinction! How could there have been more underground?" The group thought for a minute, before Trinity peeped her head around Morgan, and suggested in a quiet voice, "M-maybe they just thought they were extinct, and they hid underground…" She trailed off, ducking behind her surrogate sister again. I nodded; that made sense.

"So we can only kill them if we manage to land a hit on their necks, stomachs or thighs?" Zane asked. Morgan nodded in response, before replying, "Unless you are willing to feed it sugar, and attempt to cut it somewhere else, yes." Geez, this was going to be hard.

Suddenly, a loud bang was heard from the main room of the dragon den, as the eleven of us spun around, and ran outside to see what was going on. Standing at the door, which had just been banged open, was a girl of about 18. She had long, sandy blonde hair, which was currently braided, and as she looked up, I could see she had eyes of a dingy brown colour. At her waist hung a red, leather whip, which swung as she walked.

My next observation was that she was exhausted. Her sleeves were ripped, and her clothes and hair were singed. Her brown eyes drooped, as if she was struggling to stay conscious. She looked terrible.

"Hey," she greeted in a tired voice, "How's Andusk?" Morgan motioned for the blonde girl to wait for a second, as she walked over to another section of the den that I hadn't noticed earlier; it looked vaguely like a stable. The red-eyed albino opened the first door on her right, and as she did, a medium sized dragon bounded out, his yellow scales glistening as he moved. His red eyes flicked around the room, until they landed promptly on the blonde girl at the door. The dragon then trotted up to her obediently, his spiky tail swishing around.

"Andusk has been fine. He was last fed about two hours ago. Are you ready to take him back, Michelle?" Morgan asked the girl, who nodded once, lethargically. "Michelle," Morgan asked slowly, "Are you alright? Did something happen? You look horrible!" At the last comment, Michelle snapped her head up, and retorted, "Well at least I'm actually doing something about these damn zombies! While you lot just sit around, doing nothing!" Zombies? Could she have been talking about the Raptora?

"As a matter of fact, 'Michelle'," Ayesha began, emphasizing Michelle's name, "Our team, The Legion, has been fighting the Raptora for just over five months!" She spoke calmly at the haughty girl, who shot right back at her, "Oh yeah! You look like you've been on holiday for the past three years!" that seemed to spark Ayesha's temper.

"Well that's because we don't come back half dead, like you! We actually have brains!" she yelled.

Michelle clenched her jaw, and stuttered, "Yeah? Well… you… umm… You guys are stupid…?" she muttered hopelessly, sagging her head in defeat.

"Hey, wait!" Cole exclaimed, catching the blonde's attention, "You're looking for the Raptora too, right?" Michelle nodded warily in response, wondering what the earth ninja was getting at. "Why don't you come with us? We could help you!" Michelle seemed to be considering it, until she heard Cole offering help. "I don't need help! I'm a dragon rider! Andusk chose me as his master when he was born! I'm not weak!" she insisted.

Jayde sighed, before speaking, " What Cole meant to say, was we need your help." Ayesha spun around to confront Jayde, who covered the shadow ninja's mouth before she could protest. Michelle thought for a while, before replying, "Fine. I'll help you, if you're really that desperate." I almost laughed. She sounded exactly like Ayesha had when Jayde asked for our help.

"Well, let's go crush some Raptora then!" Ayesha exclaimed, obviously eager to confront the humanoid creatures. "I sense that it would be best to wait until tomorrow to leave." Zane supplied. Sure enough, looking outside, I could see that it was now completely dark.

"Yes, Zane is right." Morgan agreed with the nindroid, "I have some spare rooms for travellers who sometimes stay here for a day or two with their dragons. I only have six rooms, though." Everyone gaped at this comment. "Don't worry," Morgan hurriedly reassured us, "The rooms have double beds!" That only made it worse, as everyone, myself included, began complaining and shouting out who they didn't want to share a room with.

"I don't want to go with Max!" That was Jayde.

"Neither do I!" Ayesha yelled.

"I don't want to share a room with any of you!" Michelle supplied, unhelpfully.

"Hey, why don't people want to share with me?" Max complained.

"I don't want to share a room with Jay! He sleep talks!" Kai shouted.

"I do not!" Jay opposed.

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do t-" Kai was interrupted by Morgan, who was death-staring him.

"Everyone!" she commanded, "We are not children!"

"That's the point!" Ayesha yelled.  
"Ayesha! Let me speak!" Morgan responded. "We are not children. We can sort this out like adults. Since no one wants to sleep with anyone else, we should just pull names out of a hat!" She finished, leaving no room to complain, as she began scrawling names on a bit of paper, ripping them up, and throwing them in a bowl that she had picked up from the table next to her.

She then pulled out two names at once. "Jayde," she said, "You will be sharing with Kai."

"What!" they both complained simultaneously, before glancing at each other, and looking away hurriedly. "Whatever," Kai mumbled, "As long as she doesn't annoy me…"

Morgan grinned, happy that people were following the rules, before pulling another two names out of the bowl. "Matt and Max!"

"Aww, come on! I don't want Max! He kicks!" Matt complained. Max kicked the older boy in the shin. "Shut up! I do not! Besides, you take up the whole bed!" the psychic ninja insisted.

"Michelle and Cole!" Morgan demanded, before the two boys could continue arguing. "No. I refuse to share a bed with a boy!" Michelle complained.

"Yeah, I don't want to share a room with _her_!" Cole agreed, earning him a scathing look from the dragon rider. "Tough luck!" Morgan insisted, "Everyone else has to do it, and so do you!"

The albino dragon keeper then pulled another two names out of the bowl. "Jay and Zane!" she announced.

"Well," Jay began grudgingly, "At least I didn't get a girl. Otherwise Nya would flip." Zane just shrugged, and said, "As long as you don't talk too much, I'm fine."

Morgan then pulled another two names out of the hat. "Ayesha and Lloyd!" Well, at least I got someone I was actually friends with. I mean if I could choose, I probably would have chosen her anyway, just for the simple reason that she was the one that I liked the most. Ayesha shrugged, before saying, "Well, I'm just glad I didn't get Max or Matt!"

"Alright then," Morgan decided, "And I'm obviously with Trinity, as usual. The rooms are down there," she pointed over to the side of the den, "And you may all choose one. No fighting!" she warned. Everyone, Ayesha included, nodded, as they rushed off to claim a room. Shaking my head, I followed the shadow ninja into the second room from the left; the one between Kai and Jayde, and Matt and Max.

"Now," the shadow elemental began in a determined voice, "I need to lay down some rules. Number one: The left side of the bed belongs to me! Number Two: You are not allowed to cross," she drew an imaginary line down the middle of the bed with her hand, "This line! And finally, number three: You are not allowed to wake me up in the morning. That's all!" she chirped, flopping down on her side of the bed.

I shrugged, while replying, "Fair enough! I'm going to sleep now!", and taking my shoes off, before lying down on my side, facing away from the middle of the bed, and pulling the covers up. I could hear Ayesha yawn, as she followed my example, taking her shoes off, and wriggling under the covers next to me. I could hear Michelle shouting something about rules, just as Ayesha had a few seconds ago, to Cole, from three rooms down, as I smiled and shut my eyes.

Ayesha continued squirming around, trying to make herself comfortable. Eventually, she settled with stretching out on her left side. I wriggled backwards a bit, so that my back was lightly pressed against hers. It wasn't a romantic gesture, though. It was just something friendly. At least, that's what I told myself, as I welcomed sleep's warm embrace.

A.N: Geez, that's got to be one of the longest chapters I've ever written! Anyway, I'm happy with it! Remember to review guys; I know there are a lot of you reading this fic, and even if you're not signed in, I don't mind if you leave an anonymous review. Just, please review!


	6. Chapter 6

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to my beta, **BrightLightGirl15**! I'm actually going to re-update the last five chapters with her help, and she will (hopefully!) remain my beta throughout the story. Hope you like this chapter!

**_Morgan_**

Mirrors. That was all I could see. As I looked around the room, I saw myself reflected everywhere. Desperately, I banged on the mirrors, begging to get out. One of them gave way, leaving fractured splinters of glass on the floor. I ran through the new hole, finding myself outside my old house; the one I had shared with my parents before they were killed. Curiously, I slowly walked through the grass that leads to the front of the house.

I opened the front door slowly, walking inside. I padded inside my parent's old room, hoping to see them in there. My parents were in the room, but to my terror, so was the man who had killed them. His face wasn't visible to me, but I could clearly see the horrible, panicked, pained expressions on my parents' faces, as the killer raised my father's old hunting knife, and stabbed him. My mother was crying now. She looked at me one last time, and sobbed, before the knife was driven into her chest too.

Shocked and confused, I stumbled over my own feet, as I sprinted out of the house, before the man could catch me. Looking over my shoulder, I could see him quickly gaining on me. Tears began to pool in the corners of my eyes, as I tried desperately to get away from the murderer. My foot snagged on a tree root, and I came crashing to the ground. The killer loomed over me, his face still invisible, as he lifted the knife over me. He brought it down with a startling amount of force, and then…

I shot out of bed with a start, gasping for breath, as if I had been underwater. Once I had recovered from my nightmare, I glanced over at Trinity, who was, thankfully, still asleep. I sighed; it had been ten years since that incident, and I was still having nightmares about it.

I pulled the covers off myself, taking extra care not to disturb Trinity, as I swung my legs over the side of the double bed, and stood up. Stretching my arms above my head, and arching my back slightly, I yawned. 'I might as well check on the others.' I thought to myself, as I silently padded out of the room. Trinity and I had chosen the room on the very right; so the first one I checked was the one next to it.

I turned the knob silently, and pushed the door open a crack. This room was Cole and Michelle's. I laughed silently to myself, as I saw the sleeping arrangements. Michelle was snugly tucked into the centre of the double bed, while Cole was sleeping on the floor, with a pillow and a sheet. The earth ninja looked uncomfortable, as he scowled to himself, before turning over on his side. 'Yep, that's Michelle for you.' I thought to myself, as I carefully closed the door behind me and moved on to the room beside it.

I opened the door about five centimeters, and peered inside. This was Jay and Zane's room, it seemed. Jay was mumbling about the Storm Fighter in his sleep, and was half hanging off the bed, while Zane was sleeping peacefully on his side. I smiled; he looked so sweet and innocent in his sleep. Quickly, I shook that thought out of my head, as I closed the door, making sure not to disturb them, and moved to the next room.

The next room, apparently, was Max and Matt's. Matt had been pushed right to the edge of the bed, while Max was tossing around, flailing his arms and legs in every direction possible, making racecar noises. I felt sorry for Matt, but at the same time, I couldn't help but marvel at how the younger boy was still asleep. Shaking my head jokingly, I shut the door, and walked over to the room beside it.

I opened the door marginally; this room belonged to Lloyd and Ayesha. Both were fast asleep. I smiled, as I noticed that their backs were touching slightly. Suddenly, Ayesha stirred, as she yawned, and sat up groggily. "Morgan?" She asked, noticing me at the doorway. Well, this was awkward. "Yes, it's me. Good morning Ayesha!" I whispered, not wanting to wake Lloyd up. Ayesha, in her sleep induced state, seemed not to mind that I had been watching her and Lloyd in their sleep, as she got out of bed, and pulled her boots on.

I shrugged, as I closed the door softly behind me, and moved into the room that could only belong to Jayde and Kai. Kai was turned away from the centre of the bed, and was asleep. Jayde was facing the same way, lightly grasping the back of Kai's shirt in her left hand. I smiled; now I finally had something to tease the ninja of light about. Said ninja then yawned, and began to wake up. I hurriedly left the room, not wanting to have the same awkward scenario as the one in Ayesha and Lloyd's room.

I decided then, to start making breakfast for everyone; it might have taken a while, since there were twelve of us. I didn't think I'd ever had so many people in the den at once! Smiling, I walked into the kitchen near the library, and rummaged through the cupboards and fridge to see what I could make. 'Eggs, milk, cheese, cereal, bread, peanut butter, and lettuce.' I thought, listing everything in my head.

I shrugged to myself; it would be enough. I began to shake the cereal out into three bowls for Trinity, Jayde and myself while I thought of what I could make the others. I knew the members of the Legion well enough; Max, Matt and Ayesha were all peanut butter fiends, whereas Jayde was more of a cereal person. I then put three pieces of bread in the toaster, and got the peanut butter out.

I tapped my fingers rhythmically on the counter as I waited for the toast to get ready. That was when Jayde stumbled sleepily into the kitchen. "Hey Morgan. Did you have a good sleep?" she asked me groggily.

"No." I replied truthfully. The nightmare flashed once more through my head, and I flinched internally.

Jayde seemed to understand that it was difficult for me to talk about, so she left the subject alone. "So, what's for breakfast?" she asked cheerfully.

"Max, Matt and Ayesha are having peanut butter, and I made cereal for you." I explained. Jayde nodded happily, grabbing her bowl, and starting to eat. "Morgan," she began, "You know us too well!" I smiled lightly in response, and began to spread peanut butter on the toast, which had just come out of the toaster.

"Where is Ayesha?" I asked, as a second thought. She had woken up before Jayde, so didn't it make sense that she would be here first? "Oh, Ayesha's still asleep, I think." Jayde supplied. I frowned; she wasn't asleep.

"I think I will go and check on her." I suggested. Jayde nodded, confused, as I walked out of the kitchen, and into Ayesha and Lloyd's room. To my surprise, Ayesha had fallen asleep again, and was flopped on her side of the bed, with her boots still on. How typical of her; Ayesha had never really been a morning person, and usually woke up ridiculously late.

As soon as I left the room, Max and Matt stumbled out, arguing with each other. "You took up the whole bed last night! And then you pushed me off!" Matt complained, while rubbing his eyes. Max scoffed, before replying, "I did not! You just happened to fall off the bed while I was racing in my dreams!" I shook my head at the two; if they weren't playing video games, they were arguing.

"Oh, hey Morgan!" Matt noticed me, and waved.

"Hi Morgan!" Max greeted me. I nodded in response, before telling them,

"I made breakfast for both of you. It's in the kitchen." The two ninja perked up at that, and scurried into the kitchen, eager for food. Now four people were awake. I walked back into the kitchen, to finish my breakfast, as Michelle walked in. "Hey everybody, I'm awake!" she announced. Nobody said anything. "I said I'm awake!" Michelle shouted, receiving numerous mumbled 'good mornings', which seemed to satisfy her, as the dragon rider sat down at the large table where the others were seated.

As a second thought, Michelle stood up again, and walked over to where all the food had been laid out, and began pouring herself a bowl of cereal. When she was finished, she sat at the table again, between two empty seats. She obviously wasn't feeling sociable. Almost immediately after Michelle sat down, Ayesha walked, half asleep, into the room, and stumbled onto a chair. "Hey Morgan. Hey guys." She greeted sleepily. I nodded in response, while the others mumbled their greetings.

We sat for a few minutes, eating quietly, before Jayde broke the silence. "How long do those five plan to sleep?" As if to answer her question, Zane walked into the room, looking perfectly normal, and not at all disheveled like the others. I shook my head in disbelief; how did he do that? "Good morning!" Zane greeted, again, receiving mumbled greetings and affirmatives in return. "Would you like some breakfast?" I asked the ice ninja, who turned towards me and shook his head once. "I'm not really hungry." He replied with a smile. I nodded, and turned my attention back to my cereal.

A little while later, I checked the small clock that hung next to the fridge. It was 7:30. I decided it was probably time to wake Trinity up. So, without a word, I stood up and walked towards the room that she and I shared. Opening the door soundlessly, I padded up to the bed, and shook the young girl's shoulder gently. "Trinity," I urged her softly, "Time to get up. The others have to go soon." Trinity rolled over with a small yawn, and blinked slowly. "Hi Morgan." She mumbled softly.

I smiled at the younger girl, and ruffled her blonde hair fondly. "Come on. You should eat." I suggested. Trinity yawned softly again, and propped herself up on her elbows. "You know," she began quietly, "You should go with them!" I frowned, before replying, "No Trinity, I can't leave you alone. It's too dangerous, with the Raptora." Trinity rubbed her eyes, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "I'll be fine!" she insisted, "I'll be right here, with all the dragons! They'll protect me! I know you want to go, Morgan." I thought for a second; Trinity was right. All the dragons here loved her, and would give their lives to protect her. And I did want to help take down the Raptora.

"I'll think about it." I decided, before standing up, and walking out of the room, and back into the kitchen to finish my breakfast. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Trinity shyly shuffled into the room. She moved up to the counter, and took the bowl of cereal I had prepared for her earlier, sitting down quietly, too shy to greet anyone. And so, once again, everyone continued to eat in silence.

After a while, Max got tired of waiting, and announced, "This is boring. I'm going to wake the others up!" before dashing out of the room. I watched the ninja of psychic leave the room, as I contemplated whether to follow him. I decided not to; my cereal was getting soggy, and I wanted to finish it before it became inedible.

After hearing numerous loud crashes, bangs and annoyed groans, the four ninja who weren't already awake before stumbled into the room. "Ugh, it's so early!" Kai complained. Jay nodded in agreement, before adding "It's only like, eight! And we went to sleep at twelve! You know what that means? It means we didn't get at least nine hours of sleep!" he sighed dramatically.

"Yeah, seriously, couldn't you wait just one more hour? I was having this really good dream, and now I can't even remember it!" Lloyd added.

"Yeah, I was…" Cole thought for a minute, before continuing, "sleeping!" he finished lamely.

"I can't believe how lazy you four are! I, unlike you, am not a baby! And I don't need a specific amount of sleep!" Michelle bragged.

"Are we just going to stand here arguing, or are we actually going to do something productive?" Jayde asked matter-of-factly.

"We haven't even had breakfast yet!" Jay complained. Jayde sighed, before replying, "Well get something quickly and eat it on the way! We need to go!" The four ninja then raided the fridge for bread, cereal, and in general, anything edible.

Less than a minute later, Zane, Jay, Lloyd and Kai had all shoveled down a quick breakfast, and were ready to go. "Where are we going first?" Cole asked. Michelle seemed to think for a minute, before replying, "We should go to where you nine," she gestured to all the ninja, "Last saw the Raptora. We'll check it out, and make a strategy." She finished proudly. Everyone nodded, and murmured in affirmative, as they began to move outside.

But I hesitated; before I left the den, I dashed into my room and pulled my double-edged axe out from underneath my bed. I had owned it for a while; ever since I ran away from my home. I stroked the blade fondly, strapping it to my back, and leaving my room to join the others outside.

Once everyone was out, the nine ninja transformed their golden weapons into their vehicles, and Lloyd called the ultra-dragon. Michelle whistled to Andusk, who soared down to meet her, with his tail swishing around in excitement. Trinity stood behind me, lightly grasping the back of my shirt. She glanced up at me, her dark emerald eyes pleading me to go with the ninja.

I sighed, thinking for a moment, before snapping my fingers. From behind the mountain, a large dark grey dragon took off into the sky, only to land before me. Its wings were torn and damaged from countless years of battle and hardship, and its piercing red eyes shone with wisdom and experience. "Wow… Is that your dragon? It's awesome!" Jay observed. I nodded once, before speaking, "This is Meititore." Meititore lowered his head to my eye-level, before nodding once, and lowering himself onto his haunches.

"Morgan, are you going with them?" Trinity asked, a note of hope in her voice. I nodded once, before climbing up onto Meititore's back. "Trinity, you must stay here, with the dragons. And do not talk to anyone. I want you to send me a message each day so that I know you are alright." I advised. Trinity nodded once, happily, before skipping back inside the dragon den. "We should probably leave now." Zane suggested. The rest of the group nodded, as I grasped the large spike on the back of Meititore's neck, and took off into the sky.

To my surprise, I saw that Lloyd was not flying on the ultra-dragon, but rather, it was running down the mountain alongside the rest of the team. I shrugged to myself, and continued flying. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw Trinity peeking out of the window of the den. She smiled at me, and waved, as I turned around again and pushed Meititore into a dive, before pulling up at the last minute and continuing to fly above the rest of the team.

Stroking the top of Meititore's head, I began to let my thoughts drift to when I had first met my dragon. Shortly after Trinity and I had arrived at the dragon den, she had discovered Meititore as a hatchling, weakened and vulnerable after having broken his front leg and a wing. When he was fully healed, the dragon had left the den, but would return when Trinity and I needed his help.

"When do you think we'll get there?" Max asked, impatiently. Jayde looked ahead of her, before replying, "About half an hour. Not too long!" she optimized. I turned my gaze back to the sky, as we moved on, unconsciously petting Meititore's neck.

"Hey! There it is!" Kai shouted from his Blade Cycle, effectively snapping me out of my trance-like state. Sure enough, as I looked ahead of me, I could see a large cavity in the ground; no doubt from when the nine ninja had been here before. I pushed Meititore into another dive, before pulling up and making a landing.

All eleven of us steadily approached the pit, ensuring not to make too much noise. Glancing in, Cole gave the 'okay' signal, as everyone began making their descent into the ditch. I was the last one in, leaving Meititore to wander around and catch his prey. It was quite dark inside; but not so dark that I couldn't see.

Ayesha lead everyone into a small tunnel; it was too small to walk through, so we all had to crawl. I barely fit through because of my axe; it was dragging along the top of the tunnel, occasionally showering a bit of dirt on my hair. After a few minutes, rather than the powdery texture of the dirt beneath my hands, I felt a cold, hard surface. On instinct, I drew my hand back, only to find that the dirt tunnel had evolved into a metal one. Frowning, I continued on after the others. A few minutes later, I began to notice that the tunnel was turning dimmer and dimmer as we kept moving. Nevertheless, I continued moving, eager to catch a glimpse of the Raptora.

Soon, I found myself crawling in total darkness, until I crawled straight into Zane. I stumbled back, whispering a brief apology, before he began to whisper, "There is a slide up ahead. I thought I should warn you." He informed. I furrowed my eyebrows; a slide? Regardless, I kept moving, until I could no longer feel metal under my hands. Imbalanced, I gasped, toppling forward, before I landed on another piece of metal.

'A slide. I should have known.' I thought, as I slid down the sloping piece of metal, about ten metres behind Zane, who gave me a half-smile, before turning around. I shook my head once, before finding myself falling again. I landed on the ground beneath me, groaning slightly as I picked myself up.

When I got up, I saw the rest of the group, except Michelle, looking in confusion at the slide. "We dug out foot-holes last time!" Max whispered. Jay nodded in agreement, before adding, "Why is it all fixed now?" Cole furrowed his eyebrows, before speaking softly, "They know we've been here, then. We should check the balcony." He deduced. What balcony? I was so confused.

But before I could further contemplate, the ninja were stealthily creeping towards a large doorway, leading to a large room with a balcony. 'Ah, that balcony.' I thought to myself, as I followed the others inside. The entire room was empty, save for a few lumps of dirt, placed in a failed attempt to cover the floor.

"They're gone!" Jay exclaimed, stating the obvious.

"They probably figured out that we found them…" Ayesha trailed off, before continuing, "And left to another hideout. Damn!" she finished. I thought for a minute; how would we find the Raptora again? "We could try tracking them?" Zane suggested. Ayesha nodded, before whistling, to summon Midnight, no doubt.

A few seconds later, the large black dragon dug through the wall, and landed in what I had decided to dub 'the balcony room'. Ayesha looked at Midnight, communicating with the dragon through her mind, before nodding once and climbing onto Midnight's back. "Midnight can try to track the Raptora!" she announced. I nodded; Midnight was a good tracker, so we should have been able to find them in no time.

The reptile began pawing and sniffing at the floor, as she moved to the other side of the room, before beginning to burrow through the wall. Without a second thought, I followed Ayesha and Midnight through the new tunnel. Zane shrugged, before leading the other four members of his team through, followed by The Legion, and finally, Michelle.

Jayde, using her common sense, had formed a large ball of light energy, and was holding it in front of her as we made our way through the tunnel, so we weren't completely blind. Suddenly, Midnight changed directions, leading us in a completely different way than from before. Less than a minute later, Midnight halted in her tracks again, and turned in another direction. After about twenty seconds, Midnight stopped, growled once in irritation, and flopped down onto the ground.

Ayesha jumped off Midnight's back, looked the dragon in the eye, and began to communicate with her telepathically. When she was finished, Ayesha turned to us, and spoke, "Midnight can't track them. She says, though, that they went East. If we travel fast we might be able to catch up with them." She finished.

"Hey Cole, you can kind of track their movements underground, right?" Lloyd asked. Cole nodded, before saying, "Yeah, if we can keep up with them!"

So without another word, we began our ascent back to the surface.

A.N: Geez, I'm glad I finally finished that chapter! Sorry for the long wait; I had a bit of writer's block, and I'm on holiday again in Melbourne. But I'm trying to update as often as possible! Remember to review, guys! It really helps XD


	7. Chapter 7

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time! And also, thanks to my beta, BrightLightGirl15! Remember to review!

**_Cole_**

I placed my hand on the ground, in yet another attempt to find out where the Raptora had gone. I could feel a faint pulse from the East; but they were miles away. There was no chance that we would catch them in time; not at the rate they were moving. "Guys, they're just too fast!" I announced to the others, who were eagerly following my movements. "We're never going to catch them before they attack!"

Zane furrowed his eyebrows, before speaking, "According to my calculations, we would have to travel at approximately 140 kilometres per hour if we are to catch up to the Raptora before they reach Ninjago City." Morgan, Michelle, Jayde, Ayesha, Matt and Max looked confused, before Morgan asked, "Your calculations? What do you mean by that?" Uh oh. These guys still didn't know Zane was a robot. Damn.

"Yeah!" Jay covered for the nindroid, "Zane's super smart! He's a genius!" I nodded, as Zane tried to look as convincing as possible. It appeared to work, as they dismissed the incident. Morgan, however, still looked a bit suspicious, as she turned around again. "Hey, Cole!" Michelle called out to me, "How are we supposed to get to them fast enough?" I thought for a minute, before replying,

"The Raptora will most likely take a break and fall asleep tonight. So if we continue travelling for at least half of tonight, we should at least gain some distance to them."

Then a thought occurred to me. "Hey, why did you ask me? Why not someone else?" The dragon rider grimaced at me, before mumbling, "Because I assumed you were the leader! Geez, what is this, an interrogation?" I shrugged offhandedly, before continuing to follow the Raptoras' tracks. Placing my hand on the ground once more, I felt a slightly stronger pulse. Without a second thought, I started to run towards the source of the shockwave. The others followed me excitedly; we had been doing the same thing almost all day, and it was starting to get dark.

About an hour later, it was completely dark, with only the moon for a source of light. I was ecstatic when I felt the ground, noticing that the Raptora were no longer moving. "Guys! They've stopped for the night! Now's our chance to catch up!" As soon as I said that, everyone broke into a sprint, as we strived to get closer to our objective.

After just a few minutes, I could feel the shockwaves even while I wasn't touching the ground. We were getting dangerously close. Apparently, Matt was thinking the same thing. "We shouldn't get too close! We can't just barge in there without a plan!" he panted. "Yeah, we should probably finish up for the night." Ayesha suggested.

"We can set up camp here!" Lloyd added. Max flopped himself onto the dusty sand, and began to fake-snore.

"Max!" Jayde scolded the psychic ninja, "We can't just sleep here unguarded! We need to take shifts keeping watch!" She had a point. Damn; I was really tired. But still, I would rather have an uninterrupted sleep than to have to wake up in another two hours. "I'll take the first watch." I volunteered reluctantly, as I climbed up a low tree branch.

As everyone fell asleep one by one, I was stuck being awake. I decided to try finding constellations in the sky. There was only one I could identify. "What's that one called again?" I whispered to myself. "Omega? Oreo? No, that's not right…" I trailed off, trying to remember the name.

"Orion." Came a voice from beside me, almost making me fall out of the tree. I whirled around, only to see that it was Michelle. She was sitting beside me, staring at the stars, her sandy blonde hair floating around in the wind.

"What?" I asked, confused. Michelle snapped out of her trance, and locked her dull brown eyes with my dark ones. "The constellation. It's called Orion." She stated, before smiling, and adding, "Not Oreo." I smiled sheepishly in response.

"See, you always know where Orion is when you see those three stars in the middle." she gestured to three bright stars in the centre of the constellation, "That's Orion's belt."

I have to admit; I was kind of impressed. How did Michelle know all this anyway? "How did you know that?" I asked her, genuinely curious.

"Why do you want to know?" she snapped, before sighing, and speaking again, "My mother was an astronomer. When she was home, she would take me outside and show me the constellations…" she trailed off, gazing at the stars again. I decided not to pry, as I continued looking up at the stars. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. "Why are you up? I'm supposed to be on watch." I asked. Michelle shrugged, before turning to me again, and responding, "I… couldn't get to sleep. That's all." She explained.

I looked up at the moon; I had been on watch for about half an hour. One and a half more to go. Michelle sighed, before asking me, "I should call Andusk? I'm worried about him; what if he gets hurt? You know, with the Raptora and everything."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Call him in the morning." I agreed. So we sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes; just looking at the stars.

"Being in a team… Is it always like this?" Michelle asked me after a while.

"What do you mean?" I replied, confused.

"I mean, like, usually, it's just Andusk and I. Solitary. Independent. You know? But now that I'm travelling with you guys… It's so different. I feel like… Like someone always has my back, no matter what! I feel so… connected. You know?" she finished, looking at me again. "I guess I never really thought about it that way." I responded truthfully, "I mean, I've always been in a team, so… I wouldn't know what it's like to travel alone."

Michelle nodded once, and smiled at me, before hopping down from the branch next to me, and whispering, "I should go to sleep! I'll see you in the morning, then!" I nodded, and waved to the dragon rider, as she settled down near Ayesha and Jayde. Looking up at the moon again, I saw that I still had about an hour left until I could fall asleep. I sighed; this was going to take a while. With no company or entertainment, time seemed to drag by agonizingly slow.

After an hour of doing nothing but staring at the moon, I swung down from the tree, and shook Lloyd's shoulder. "Hey, Lloyd!" I whispered to the green ninja, "It's your turn to be on watch!" Lloyd groaned, rolling onto his side and swatting at my hand. "Dude, leave me alone, I'm trying to sleep…" He trailed off. I sighed; Lloyd obviously wasn't fully conscious. "Wake up!" I whispered, shaking his shoulder again. Reluctantly, Lloyd stood up and stretched, before nimbly climbing up into the tree to keep watch. I yawned whole-heartedly; I could finally get some rest.

So, stretching out on the ground, making myself as comfortable as possible, I let sleep consume me.

* * *

I woke up to the sounds of the rest of the team scrambling out of their makeshift beds, and getting ready to travel again. Following their example, I leapt out of bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes in an attempt to wake myself up. Andusk was running around, sniffing people excitedly; he was obviously thrilled to be with us.

I turned my attention to Michelle, who was shouting at Max and Jay to wake up. She noticed me, and smiled gratefully in my direction; but the smile was gone as soon as it came. I shrugged, before raking my hands through my hair in a vain attempt to make it look a little neater.

"Guys! We need to move!" Kai shouted over everyone else, as he started walking. I placed my hand on the ground in an attempt to track the Raptora; surely they would be miles away from us now; we had woken up later than usual. But to my shock, the pulses were still coming from the same place. I furrowed my eyebrows; this couldn't be right. "The Raptora haven't moved since last night!" I exclaimed. Everyone looked at me in shock, before Lloyd suggested, "We should go check it out! I mean, if they're not moving, they're either still asleep, or at their destination, right?"

I nodded, before leading the group to the main source of the underground disturbances. "Here!" I exclaimed, pointing to a spot on the sandy floor. On closer inspection, I saw that there was a kind of inscription in the sand. "Hey, look!" I exclaimed, "There's a sign on the ground!" Everyone crowded around the small inscription; it was a pentagram.

"What do you think it is?" Jayde asked, peering at the five-pointed star.

"It looks like… A star inside a circle!" Jay exclaimed, stating the obvious. I rolled my eyes, before replying, "Yeah, we figured that bit out. She meant, why is it here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Ohhhh…" Jay said incredulously, earning a few eye-rolls.

"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Ayesha said decidedly, before turning to Michelle, and asking, "Can your dragon dig?" The rider nodded, before whistling for Andusk, and asking him to dig through the pentagram.

The sandy coloured dragon began to paw at the sand, before vigorously burrowing under the ground. Michelle looked down the hole after her dragon, making sure he was safe. Suddenly, Andusk leapt out of the burrow, rubbing up against his rider. Ayesha leaned over the hole, and after checking that it was safe, jumped in.

Lloyd looked in after her, before calling out, "What's down there?"

"Some weird shiz… You guys had better come down here and check it out!" came the shadow ninja's voice from deep underground. Without hesitation, Lloyd jumped in after her, followed by the rest of us. When we got down, it was pretty dark; dark enough that I couldn't see a thing. I could only identify that we were standing on a hard, rocky surface rather than dirt. "How do you know what's down here if you can't even see?" Kai asked. "Please," Ayesha replied, "Darkness is no problem for the ninja of shadow!" Jayde sighed, before creating a ball of light in the palm of her hand, illuminating the pit.

I was right; the floor was made of rock. And engraved in a large stone tablet just a few metres from us were ten different patterns forming a circle around a picture of the sun; a flame, a lightning bolt, a rock, a snowflake, a void-like image, a beam of light, a water droplet, a wisp of smoke, a fang and a whip. "What the heck?" Max asked as he approached the formation of symbols. As he got closer, though, the wisp of smoke began to glow red. "Hey, sick! I made it glow!" he exclaimed.

Kai furrowed his eyebrows, before slowly approaching the symbols. As soon as he got closer, the flame emitted a red glow. "I think these pictures match our elements!" he yelled. I decided to try my luck, approaching the symbols cautiously. Sure enough, the rock began glowing black. Ayesha followed my example, causing the void to glow black as well. Soon, everyone had been assigned to their symbols, except Lloyd, Morgan and Michelle.

"We're not ninja! So how are we supposed to have elements?" Michelle pointed.

"I don't think these are elements, Michelle. They just symbolize what is inside of us." Morgan reasoned, before stepping up and igniting the fang with a purple glow. Michelle, not wanting to be the last person, marched boldly up to the image of the whip, which also began glowing purple. Last but not least, Lloyd stepped up to the stone tablet, engulfing the sun in a greenish light.

Shortly after, all the symbols began glowing violently bright, forcing us to cover our eyes. Suddenly, the stone tablet dropped out from beneath us, and we were falling.

A.N: Ok, so I was going to write more, but I felt like leaving it there! XD Anyway, remember to review, guys!


	8. Chapter 8

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed last time! Sorry I took a while to update! This chapter will be a little weird because I will be switching POVs, so… Anyways, remember to review, guys!

**_Kai_**

We were falling. That was all I could comprehend, as I felt the familiar rush of cold air blowing through my hair. "What the heck!" Jay exclaimed, "I thought something cool was going to happen! Like when we went to the Temple of Light! But this is freaky!" he panicked. Before anyone could say anything else, we hit the floor.

Groaning, I picked myself up. I winced, as I noticed we had landed on solid rock. But it was pitch black down here – I couldn't see a thing. "Sssh!" Cole's voice exclaimed, placing his right hand on the floor. "They still haven't moved…" He trailed off, frowning. "Apparently, they're right underneath us! So we need to be quiet." He whispered. Everyone nodded in understanding before Max whispered, "Jayde, come on! Lets go!"

As my eyes adjusted slightly in the darkness, I saw faintly that Jayde was still on the ground, half sitting and half lying down. The ninja of light groaned once, before attempting to pull herself up, only to fall back down to the floor again. I furrowed my eyebrows; something was wrong.

I approached the ninja steadily, concerned. "Jayde… We need to get moving." I reasoned. Jayde just propped herself up on her right elbow, before slowly trying to get to her feet. "I can't," she mumbled, "I don't know why… I'm so tired…" she trailed off, holding her hand to her head.

Ayesha walked up from behind us, and thought for a minute, before voicing her thoughts. "Maybe it's because it's so dark down here. Maybe, because she's the ninja of light, and there is no light, she's been weakened. It would make sense!" she reasoned, "I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I feel a heck of a lot stronger down here…" she trailed off. Jayde just nodded once in agreement to the shadow ninja's opinion.

I crouched down next to Jayde, who turned her eyes towards mine. "Here," I offered, "I'll help you get up." I looped my arms through hers, and when she was standing, I supported her by keeping my arm around her shoulders. "Okay, what do we do now?" I asked.

"We should follow Ayesha. She's the only one who can see clearly down here." Lloyd suggested. He had a point. "Alright." Ayesha agreed, "But where should we go? There are three different paths. Maybe we should split?"

"No, that's not a good idea. What if only one path is the right way? How will the other two groups know?" Zane pointed.

"Well, what other choice do we have? If we want to get to the Raptora before they leave, we need to find them fast!" Ayesha argued. Cole nodded, before agreeing,

"She's right. We should split up. Jay, Zane, Kai and Lloyd, you guys come with me. Jay, do you think you could use your lightning powers to light up the way for us a little?" Jay thought for a minute, before bringing his hands together, and pulling them apart slowly, forming a series of sparks.

"Whoa! Cool! I never knew I could do that!" he exclaimed, playing with the sparks. "Jayde, Matt and Max. You guys come with me, since I can see in the dark." Ayesha suggested.

"But that just leaves Michelle and I!" Morgan opposed. Ayesha just shrugged, and smirked at them. "Too bad. Well, we should get going!" she decided, leading her team through the central path."

"Us too!" Jay yelled, dashing into the path on the left, causing our team to follow him. As we were leaving, Michelle pulled out a torch from her belt, before scowling at us. Jay slowed down a bit, causing us all to crash into him. "Owww!" he complained.

"Why did you slow down?" Zane asked him. Jay shrugged, before standing up again, and continuing to walk.

The path around us was made of stone; it looked like a natural cave. "What do you think this place is, anyway?" Jay asked, to which he received numerous shrugs.

"Lets keep going guys," I suggested, "This place is starting to creep me out…" The others nodded in agreement, as we continued through the path.

A few minutes later, Cole asked, "Hey, what's that?" In front of us was a large circular room at the end of the path. "What? Aw man, it's a dead end!" Jay complained.

"We should still go check it out. Just to be sure!" Lloyd advised, as we cautiously approached the room. As soon as we stepped inside, though, it began to light up.

The last thing I saw was a red flash, before everything disappeared.

* * *

**_Jayde_**

"So where do you think this tunnel leads?" I asked weakly.

"Who knows? We'll find out soon." Matt reasoned. I nodded once, before sighing. I was so tired. Stupid darkness.

"What's that? Is it like, and awesome room?" Max asked from behind me. I rolled my eyes in response, before Ayesha replied, "How should I know? I'm going to check it out quickly. Matt, come with me. Max, you stay back with Jayde for now." She ordered. I sighed; usually I would be the one to go with Ayesha on these mission-type things, but now that I was weakened… Stupid darkness.

Matt and Ayesha steadily approached the room at the end of the corridor, and as soon as they entered it, they both disappeared in separate flashes of blue and black. "What the heck!?" Max panicked, dragging me along with him into the room. Following Ayesha and Matt's example, we both disappeared. I saw a bright white flash, before I passed out.

A.N: I know this chapter was so short! But think of it this way; I'll be updating really soon! Remember to review, guys!


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